


Feelings are Hard

by roseinthebusiness



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Awkward Flirting, Based on how I'm feelin, Blushing Shiro, Fluff, Getting Together, Hunk is the supportive best friend, I don't fuckin know, Kissing, Lance is (Nsync voice) Bi Bi Bi, M/M, Mutual Pining, Neither does Lance, Rating May Change, So much pining Jesus!, What are you supposed to do when someone is rad and cool and makes you a better person?
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-04-08
Updated: 2017-04-29
Packaged: 2018-10-16 11:33:54
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 10,674
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10570467
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/roseinthebusiness/pseuds/roseinthebusiness
Summary: “So what’s all this about incessant pining?” Hunk asked.“Shiro fucking wears eyeliner! And and he wants to put some on me!? He thinks my eyes are gorgeous and he gives me compliments and gave me my brand of face cream and makes me a better person and Jesus fucking Christ, Hunk! Help me!”Hunk pursed his lips, giving it a few moments’ thought before saying, “Uh, what exactly do you need help with?”“My fucking feelings, Hunk! Make them go away!”Lance is noticing Shiro in a new light and it is making Lance sooooooooo uncomfortable.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I've been wanting to write Shance for awhile now. So I decided to! This is probably going to be a 3 parter. I'll have the next chapter up by next week sometime! Enjoy! Comments and kudos are always appreciated!

Lance didn’t know why but sometimes he couldn’t stop thinking about Shiro. And how fucking nice he is. How does someone get away with being that nice? And selfless? And just really good-looking?

It really wasn’t fair.

Shiro would literally bend over backwards if it meant that one of his teammates could have an easier time. 

There were three separate times that Shiro had been way too nice to him in the last fucking week and Lance could not stop thinking about them.

First, Lance had accidentally rolled his ankle during training and instead of hooking Lance’s arms around his shoulder and helping him walk to the infirmary like a normal person, Shiro hooked Lance’s arm around his shoulder and picked him up bridal style and carried him to the infirmary.

“You need to be more careful, Lance,” Shiro said firmly, “What would we do if that was a mission? The Galra would have been on you for sure.”

Lance couldn’t respond because all he could think about was Shiro’s hand holding up his thighs and how dangerously close it was to his ass. Also Shiro’s cologne or perfume or whatever the hell that scent coming off of Shiro in waves was, was making Lance heady. Who even had space cologne though. He sure as hell didn’t have it when they left Earth. Did Shiro go and buy it? Did Coran lend it to him? Did he find it on the ship? Was Shiro wearing eye-liner? Why did that make Lance get warm all over?

Once at the infirmary, Shiro placed him carefully in the pod and told him he’d be back later.

Next thing Lance knew he was awake and his ankle didn’t hurt anymore. He walked out of the infirmary to find Hunk and Shiro walking toward him with a couple trays of food.

“What’s up?” Lance greeted.

“Lance!” Hunk said, smiling, “Guess who helped make dinner tonight?”

Shiro chuckled. “If you could call it ‘help.’ Hunk did most of it.”

“Nonsense. An extra hand or two in the kitchen will never be put to waste. Anyway, we didn’t know if you’d be up to eating at the table so we decided to bring some stuff down to you.”

Lance raised an eyebrow at them. “Uh, that’s super nice of you guys. But… I’m fine. I just rolled my ankle. It didn’t hurt that much to begin with but taking the short nap in the pod sure helped.”

Hunk shot Shiro a confused look. “Oh… from the way Shrio was talking about it, it sounded a lot more serious.”

Lance glanced at Shiro to find the Black Paladin’s face just the tiniest tinge redder. Even his scar looked redder.

“Well, we can’t be too careful…” was Shiro’s response.

“I guess,” Lance said. “Uh, also thanks for, uh, carrying me down here. That was super nice of you.”

Wow, Lance didn’t even know Shiro’s face could turn that red.

“Y-you’re welcome.” Shiro cleared his throat and passed the tray in his hands to Lance. “Here, eat. We had a long day of training and you need the calories. We have more training scheduled for tomorrow.”

As soon as Lance got a handle on the trays, Shiro spun on his heels and walked away.

Hunk stared at Lance.

“Why are you looking at me like that?”

“What the hell did you do to Shiro?” Hunk asked.

“What the hell did I do? I didn’t do anything! He’s the one who picked me up and smells good and has fucking eyeliner on his eyes!” Lance said, helplessly.

Hunk blinked at him. “Okay. Okay, wow. Um, first of all, congrats I guess? And also, I never thought I’d see the day…”

“What?”

“What do you mean ‘what?’”

“What do you mean ‘what do you mean “what?”

“Isn’t it obvious?”

Lance scrubbed his hands over his face. “Buddy. Hunk. I love you and you know that. I would do anything for you. But this entire conversation is way too vague for me right now. And I’m hungry. Can we just eat please?”

Hunk shook his head and said, “Alright. Whenever you want to talk about it, I’m here for you, buddy, okay?”

Lance sighed. “Okay.” He grabbed a plate off of the tray, plopped down right in the middle of the hallway and dug in. Hunk joined in right beside him and they ate in silence. Lance’s mind was whirling with what the hell had just happened today.

The next weird thing that Shiro had done was buy him something nice? Like really nice.

They had stopped by another space mall when Allura had said that she needed a couple things for the ship and also admitted she did want something sparkly. So the paladins were let loose with some pocket change and orders to be back by the ship in a few doboshes. 

Pidge had roped Lance in to see if they could find another Earth import store. Hunk had his eyes set on this alien bakery and kitchenware store. Keith followed Hunk not very far behind. And Shiro and Allura left to get something for the ship… or sparkly…

They were in luck and found a store very similar to the other space mall they’d been at. They had boardgames, perfume, non perishable Earth “snacks” like spam, and face cream. Lance definitely knew he was getting the spam. Hunk didn’t mention it much but sometimes he would talk about how back in Hawaii his mom would make the best spam fried rice for breakfast. Fuckin’ Hawaiins and their weird obsession with spam but whatever. He knew it would put a smile on the big guy’s face.

And Lance had just enough cash to buy some face cream too. He couldn’t find his preferred brand but in space… one must make sacrifices.

He was about to pick it up when he heard a whine coming from his small green companion.

“What’s up, Pidge?”

Pidge was staring forlornly at a worn Battleship box. “Matt and I used to play this a lot as kids,” was the only explanation that Lance got out of them.

“Well, let’s get it then,” Lance said.

Pidge shook their head. “Nah. I don’t have enough.”

Lance grinned. “Should we raid the nearest fountain again?”

Pidge smiled a little but then shook their head again. “Nah, Shiro and Allura are here now. They’d make us put the money back if they caught us.”

That was very true.

“How much is it?”

Pidge showed him the price tag. If Lance’s math was right, then what Pidge needed was the rest of Lance’s money after he bought the spam. Without thinking about it, he handed it over.

“Here, this should be enough.”

Pidge looked up at him as if they were expecting some kind of catch.

“Don’t give me that look. Go and buy it before I do it for you.”

Pidge cracked a smile at that and said, “I’d tell you that you’re the best if I didn’t think it would inflate your ego to dangerous proportions.”

Lance cackled. “Don’t worry, my dude, already too dangerous for anyone to handle.” He added finger guns to the statement and it made Pidge full out laugh. Lance smiled as he watched Pidge buy the game and chat excitedly with the store clerk about how the game works and how Hunk was gonna flip and maybe they could wrangle Coran into playing it with them.

They made it back to the mall entrance in time where the team showed each other their prizes. Allura did indeed get something sparkly. A diamond studded javelin. Hunk and Keith had little bags of pastel colored dough balls that were some kind of dessert with promises to share.

Hunk did indeed flip that Pidge had found Battleship. Hunk also gave Lance a bone-crushing hug when he showed him the small can of spam.

“I can’t believe you guys found this stuff!” Hunk exclaimed. “And thanks, Lance! You didn’t have to do that!”

Lance laughed and pat Hunk on the back. “Dude, I know. But I couldn’t not leave the store without it. Not when you keep saying you miss Lala’s spam-fried rice.”

“Yeah, Mom’s fried rice is the bomb. You’re too good to me, dude.”

“Duuuuuuude, gaaaaayyyyyyyy.”

Hunk laughed. “Only for you, bro.”

Lance fake-gasped and clutched his heart. “Bro….”

“Alright, alright, let’s break it up, you two,” Shiro said, clapping his hands to get their attention.

Lance and Hunk giggled as they separated. They were about to walk out when Shiro fell into step beside him. “You get anything else?” he asked.

“Nah,” Lance said, “you?”

“Didn’t really find anything that caught my interest.” Shiro shrugged. Then returned a scrutinizing gaze back to Lance. “You really didn’t get yourself anything?”

Lance shrugged. “No? I mean there was cool stuff around, but, I don’t know spending money on other people is like way more fun than spending money on yourself. You know? Like did you see Hunk’s and Pidge’s face? They are so stoked. And plus with the game? Talk about team-building for days, am I right?”

Shiro smiled at him and it did weird fucking things to Lance’s belly. It was like he wanted to throw-up but run a marathon at the same time. But like… both in a good way?

While Lance was trying to sort out his feelings, he missed Shiro’s gaze become introspective. Lance also missed the way that Shiro was no longer in step beside him but had stopped walking somewhere along the way.

“I’m going back in,” Shiro announced, which made everyone turn around and look.

“Did you forget something?” Allura asked.

“Uh, yeah. I forgot I needed something. Pidge, you mind coming with me?”

“Uh…” They looked between their new game and their leader. “Sure.”

They reluctantly handed over the box to Hunk with strict instructions to not open it or play it until they get back. Hunk nodded solemnly.

“Just send Black or Green to come and get us in a few ticks, okay?” Shiro instructed.

The rest of the team nodded. After that, they disappeared into the crowd. Lance didn’t think anything of it. Not until he heard a knock on his door later that night.

He was already in his robe with his towel turban on his head. He was about to go through his skin care routine when he heard the knock. He opened the door expecting to see Hunk with a proud smirk and a giant plate of spam fried whatever-food-material-counted-as-rice-in-space. What he did not expect was Shiro standing there holding a small box and looking bashful.

Yeah, bashful.

Like, hand scratching the back of his neck, face and scar slightly red, eyes averted to the ground, shifting weight from side to side as if nothing was comfortable, kind of bashful.

What?

“Good evening, Lance,” Shiro said, when Lance said nothing in greeting.

“Oh, uh, hey. What can I do you for, Shiro?” Lance cringed as he just realized the underlying sexual innuendo of the phrase that he had picked up from years of hearing his dad say the exact same thing to customers while working at the grocery he owned.

“Oh, um, nothing. I just wanted to… to give you this.” Shiro offered the tiny box in his hands.

Lance immediately recognized the packaging.

“How the fuck did you get this?!” Lance gasped as he grabbed the box to make sure he knew what he was looking at. It was face cream. It was his brand. Shiro had somehow gotten him his favorite brand of face cream? In space!?

“I, uh, went back to the store you and Pidge went to. Pidge said you spent a lot of time near the face creams so I figured I could get you one. Is that one okay?”

Lance stared at Shiro like he was seeing him for the first time. He knew he must have a dumb fucking look on his face, but did he care? Not really.

“Dude, Shiro… I… not to be gay or anything, but I think I could totally kiss you right now? And maybe marry you.” As soon as he said it, it sounded ridiculous. He pictured Shiro in a suit coming back to a white-picket fence home where Lance was waiting for him with a pink apron on. Ridiculous… but at the same time appealing.

Shiro blushed. Like super hard. He was red from his ears to his neck. He had taken his human hand and covered his mouth still not quite looking at him.

“Um, th-that’s…” Shiro began but shook his head. “I’m glad you like it.”

Shiro wished him a quick good night and made a speedy retreat out of there, leaving Lance to stare wonderingly after him.

After he realized Shiro had left and didn’t even acknowledge his kiss remark, Lance clicked his tongue as he closed the door.

He totally would have kissed Shiro too.

Bummer.

The other nice thing Shiro did for Lance was just… compliment him? Almost constantly. It was driving Lance insane.

Usually, when Lance boasted about himself, it was mostly a “fake it til you make it” kind of a thing. Growing up the youngest and scrawniest of four boys with 3 younger sisters to take care of kind of gave him that mindset. Be confident so no one knows that you’re scared on the inside and get shit done because it’s no use worrying about if it’s being done wrong when it still needs to get done.

He knows it’s kind of annoying. He knows he gets on everybody’s nerves with it sometimes but that’s what he needs to make it through the day sometimes. Somebody’s gotta believe in him. Why not himself?

But lately, Shiro’s been agreeing with him?

Like acknowledging it and also agreeing?

And also sometimes just randomly complimenting him?

Like during training when the setting on the Gladiator is dialed up and it’s one on one, Lance tells everybody he’s got this, don’t worry, Shiro will smile and say without any hint of irony at all, “You do. Go get ‘im.”

That first spar with the Gladiator did not end well. It ended with Lance’s rolled ankle and Shiro picking him up bridal style and wait… Lance told this story before.

After that whole deal, Lance slowly got better at it. Shiro gave him constructive criticism. Things to do better and things he did right. And then even in real battles, Shiro would shout something like “Nice shot!” or “Good cover!”

Even his criticism became more like a compliment. One time when they were flying and taking down enemy ships in their Lions, Lance had almost accidentally skimmed against Keith and Red. He’d banked too hard. But he did get into position to shoot an enemy down.

“Nice, Lance!” came Shiro’s voice over the receiver, encouraging. “Be aware of your teammates coming out of a maneuver next time, though.”

“You got it!” Lance had said, not even getting down on himself. Not letting himself get down. Because “next time” was sure to happen sooner rather than later.

Lance tried to notice if Shiro was giving any of the other teammates compliments. And of course he was. But was Lance imagining that maybe he got complimented more?

Did Shiro somehow find out about his hidden insecurities and trying to somehow make up for them? By complimenting him?

No… Some of the compliments had been completely random and unwarranted. Appreciated… but unwarranted. One in particular made Lance weak at the knees just thinking about.

A few days ago, Lance had finally asked Shiro about the eyeliner. They were all sitting around a common area where Pidge was trying to teach Coran the intricacies of Battleship, Allura and her mice were watching intriguingly. Hunk was teaching Keith how to make tiny origami footballs and how to shoot it between his finger goalposts. 

Lance and Shiro were playing Old Maid with cards that Lance had spent a whole evening making from a weird old cardstock material that Coran had been flabbergasted to see was still around in the castle.

Lance and Shiro were criss-cross-applesauce on the floor with their matches between their legs. Shiro would lean in closer than he needed to in order to pull a card from Lance’s hand. Or maybe Lance was purposefully pulling his hand closer and closer to himself so that Shiro would lean in more. Either way, Lance liked it.

This closer view of Shiro also confirmed for a fact that Shiro wore eyeliner. Nothing too fancy. Just an elegant accent to his already elegant face.

“Hey, Shiro?”

“Yes?” Shiro looked up from his hand, right in Lance’s eyes. Intense. Always intense. Lance tried not to squirm.

“Um, you wearing eyeliner, buddy?” Lance asked. It was the only thing he could think about. He probably had at least half a dozen matches in his hand already but hasn’t bothered to look.

Shiro’s gaze turned slightly guarded. Or slightly more guarded than usual. “Yes. Is that a problem?”

“Wh-What? No, man. You do you, you know? Just…” Lance didn’t know how to continue without sounding super gay. Admittedly, Lance was bi, so it shouldn’t matter to him whether or not he sounded “gay.” He always sounded “bi!” But that was neither here nor there.

“Just what?” Shiro asked as he laid another match on the ground.

“It just… looks nice.” There were a million other better words that Lance could have chosen but he supposed words weren’t going to be his strong suit today.

Shiro looked up from his hand and smiled. Warm. There was that blush again. “Thank you, Lance.”

“N-not a problem.” Lance turned his gaze toward his hand, pretending to find matches. He couldn’t concentrate.

“I could show you how to, sometime. If you want…”

Lance glanced up. “What?”

“You know… do eyeliner. I could show you how.” 

“O-Oh…” Lance didn’t know what to say. He didn’t mind the idea of makeup on him. Hell, he had little sisters at home. It was almost in his job description as a big brother to not be bothered with makeup or nail polish on him at all times. But doing it to himself? Just for himself? He wasn’t sure if he liked the idea.

He also wasn’t sure if he disliked the idea.

“Just a suggestion,” Shiro said, still smiling.

Lance smiled back. “Well, let me think about it. If I ever have to get dolled up for something, I’ll give you a call, alright?”

Shiro nodded and let out a huff of air that was very close to a laugh. “Of course.”

Shiro was looking at him expectantly. Lance realized that it must have been his turn to pick from Shiro’s hand. Lance reached out a hand, trying to look anywhere but at Shiro’s magnetic smile. He grabbed but didn’t get a hold of anything. Lance glanced up and Shiro had moved his hand closer to himself.

Lance looked up into Shiro’s face and felt his face get hot at the expression that he found. It was something between cocky and teasing and affectionate and he knew that Shiro knew Lance had been playing a small game of keep-away with the cards. Just to get Shiro to lean in closer.

Fuck.

Lance stretched his hand out farther and Shiro moved his hand away. Lance leaned in a bit and Shiro still moved his hand away.

Lance shot Shiro an unimpressed look.

“What?” Shiro asked, innocently.

“You know exactly what you’re doing.”

Shiro snorted. “Nope, can’t say that I do.”

Lance huffed but his competitive nature did not allow him to give up. He had won every single gay chicken game in high school and it wasn’t cheating because he was bisexual. Some of those kids had been nasty. But he still won. Because Lance McClain is not a quitter.

Lance kept leaning in and Shiro always kept his hand slightly out of reach. Eventually, Lance’s knees were on top of Shiro’s with Shiro stretching his hand way behind his back. Lance was straining to reach it but Shiro’s other hand was keeping him at bay by pushing at his chest.

“C’moooonnnn, Shiro! Who knew the leader of Voltron was a cheater!?” Lance said, exasperated.

To Lance’s surprise, Shiro laughed delightedly.

Lance didn’t know what he did to deserve that laugh but he knew for sure that he needed to hear more of it. Before he could work out a plan to do exactly that he felt Shiro’s breath against his ear.

“You should really let me do your eyeliner one of these days. Your eyes are gorgeous.”

Lance felt himself full-body blush. His entire body was hot. What the fuck? What the fuck did Shiro just say to him?

For a wild moment, all Lance could think of to say was, “Your eyes are way more gorgeous.”

He heard it. He heard himself say it as he said the words. He heard it. He couldn’t stop it even if he wanted to. He pulled back enough to look Shiro in the eye. Ah, the blush was back.

They sat like that staring at each other wide-eyed for who knows how long. Neither one of them moving away or closer, afraid of what might happen.

Something had happened. Lance didn’t remember what but he did remember that what he wanted hadn’t happened. They ended up springing apart acting very heterosexual indeed, and Lance couldn’t stop thinking about it. Couldn’t stop thinking about Shiro. Or his dumb eyes or his stupid perfume or whatever the fuck made him smell so good.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lance talks about his feelings but not to the person he should be talking to.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Wow wow wow you guys! Thank you all so much for all of the kudos and comments and subscriptions! I truly didn't think this would get such a good response just from the first chapter! I'm so glad you all are enjoying it and hopefully you will continue to enjoy it! As always comments and kudos are appreciated!

Lance wandered into Hunk’s room, surprised to find not only Hunk but Keith as well. They had been spending a lot of time together recently.

Hunk looked up from Battleship and smiled at Lance. “Hey, dude. Did you know Keith is killer at Battleship?”

“Why are you smiling when you know I’m beating you? A3,” Keith said.

“Miss. I don’t know. I just think it’s cool that you’re good at silly stuff and also really cool stuff,” Hunk said.

Lance groaned. “Okay! Listen, Keith, buddy, I need to talk to Hunk, okay? Can we finish this game later? Please?”

“Sure, go ahead,” Keith said, not moving. There was another beat of silence and Keith still did not move.

Lance looked at Hunk, exasperated. He pointed at Keith as if to say, “Do something.”

“Keith, I think Lance wants to talk alone for a little bit,” Hunk said.

Keith narrowed his eyes at Lance. “Why?”

“Personal stuff, my dude,” Lance said. “You can stick around if you want to hear my incessant pining, though.”

Keith blanched and stood up. “Nope. I’ll get out of your way, then.”

At the door, Keith turned around and said, “Find me when you’re… done. Okay, Hunk?”

“Sure thing, bud,” Hunk replied.

After Keith left, Lance immediately threw himself on the floor. Hunk reached out a hand and gently pat him on the head, like he was a puppy who didn’t know how to use his legs yet.

“So what’s all this about incessant pining?” Hunk asked.

“Shiro fucking wears eyeliner! And and he wants to put some on me!? He thinks my eyes are gorgeous and he gives me compliments and gave me my brand of face cream and makes me a better person and Jesus fucking Christ, Hunk! Help me!”

Hunk pursed his lips, giving it a few moments’ thought before saying, “Uh, what exactly do you need help with?”

“My fucking feelings, Hunk! Make them go away!”

Hunk raised an eyebrow at him. “You and I both know I am not some kind of weird sea witch capable of that. And besides, it’s not so bad.”

Lance glared up at Hunk. “I like Shiro! I like like Shiro, our leader or whatever! How is it not so bad?”

Hunk shrugged. “There’s worse people to like-like. Like… a random alien that you might never get to see again. Or… I don’t know, a Galra?”

Lance huffed and let his head back down to the ground. “I guess… those are both your areas of expertise, though, am I right?”

“What?” Hunk gave him the stink eye until the penny dropped. “Okay, listen. Shay and I are friends and have endless amounts of respect for each other. And-and… I don’t… like-like Keith, okay? He’s just… funny and nice. Sometimes. And his smile is… cute. And… so is his laugh? And-and sometimes… when he’s training, he’ll wipe the sweat off his forehead with his forearm… and like his shirt will ride up and you get to see like a little bit of his abs…. And I realize over and over again exactly how pan I am.”

“Incessant pining?” Lance asked, raising an eyebrow.

Hunk jut out his bottom lip and if it were anyone else Lance would call it pouting. But on Hunk, the bear of a man that he is, it just looked like sulking. Hunk sighed then and gently laid his head on the floor. Lance pat Hunk’s head and nodded while Hunk complained about hot hapas and what did he ever do to deserve these feelings. They spent the rest of the night complaining about their crushes until Keith knocked on the door.

“It’s late,” Keith said when Lance opened the door.

“It is,” Lance agreed. “Shouldn’t someone be in bed?”

Keith rolled his eyes. “I could say the same to you. And, besides… I just wanted to wish Hunk good night.”

Lance’s eyes lit up as he slowly turned his head toward Hunk.

“Y’hear that, buddy? Keith has been staying up just to wish you a good night~”

Hunk, bless him, didn’t know what to do with himself. Apparently, he decided to ring the end of his shirt. “U-um, thanks, dude, but you didn’t have to stay up just for-”

“Of course he didn’t have to, Hunk!” Lance stated, waggling his eyebrows. “But he wanted to!”

Keith was leveling a glare at Lance something fierce. Lance used his tactical knowledge that he learned from Shiro to make a swift retreat. Anymore cajoling and Lance didn’t know if he’d leave Hunk’s room with one shiner-less eye, let alone two. He couldn’t help but send a patronizing “Goood NIIIIIIIIGGGGHHHHT, you two~” over his shoulder as he walked away. Keith’s indignant shout for Lance to go fuck himself made Lance giggle.

On his way back to his room for the night, Lance couldn’t help but think, out of anybody on the ship, he’d like to see Hunk happy and in love with someone. Keith better know how much of a lucky bastard he is to have someone like Hunk crushing on him.

His thoughts of planning when exactly he would give Keith the shovel talk were interrupted by a solid chest and a quick intake of breath. Lance looked up to see Shiro staring down at him, eyes wide.

“L-Lance, what are you doing up so late?” Shiro asked, voice almost imperceptibly shaking.

“Um, was about to head to bed for some shut-eye. Hunk and me were gossiping and you know how that goes,” Lance said, conversationally. He noticed the small sheen of sweat on Shiro’s brow and the way his eyes didn’t seem to be focused on anything in particular. They would jump around and not stay on any one thing for very long.

“How about you?” Lance asked.

“Uh, couldn’t sleep,” Shiro said, attempting a smile.

“Oh, yeah, I know how that is,” Lance said, patting Shiro’s shoulder. He stopped and placed one hand on his shoulder. “Uh, anything you want to talk about?”

Shiro quickly shook his head. “No, I’d rather not. But... thank you. For the offer.”

“You sure? I mean, I know I talk a lot but I’m also a pretty good listener when I want to be. Despite popular opinion.”

A hint of a real smile graced Shiro’s face. “No, I’m sure. But I might take you up on it another time.”

Lance smiled. “Anytime, my guy. Offer still stands indefinitely.”

“Thanks,” Shiro said again. Then paused, as if considering something. He opened his mouth then shut it again.

“What do you need, Shiro?” Lance asked. He tried to keep it light, but failed ultimately. He’d never seen Shiro like this. Anything other than completely cool and collected. Completely in control at all times.

“I just, ah-...” Shiro scratched the back of his neck. “I don’t want to talk… about it, but maybe if you wanted, you could… walk with me? Just a bit? I know it’s late and this isn’t exactly what a senior officer should be saying to his-”

“Shiro,” Lance interrupted. “It’s all good. Protocol don’t mean a lot when you’re a couple lightyears away from regulations. Plus I love hanging out with you.”

Shiro blushed. “Um, right.”

Lance smiled and hooked his arm through Shiro’s as they walked. He didn’t know what was going on in that over-analyzing head of his, but Lance knew a thing or two about talking a person down from a nightmare. Shiro might not have had a nightmare while he was sleeping necessarily, but they all deal with nightmares on a daily basis. Not the least of all, Shiro. Shiro was taken from his home and was tortured by motherfucking aliens. If that wasn’t nightmare fuel, Lance didn’t know what was. Just thinking about it could be like having a waking nightmare.

Not only that but if the team was under pressure, Shiro bore the brunt of it. He held them all up. That had to get to a guy. Lance could not imagine the amount of stress that Shiro puts on himself to maintain the cool leader facade. And granted, Lance had bought it hook line and sinker. It hadn’t been until right now that he thought, maybe Shiro’s a real person with real anxieties. Heck, Lance would go on to say that Shiro had pretty otherworldly anxieties.

But back to the original point, Shiro’s life has been a nightmare. While Lance didn’t think he could do much, he knew how to talk someone down from a nightmare. You touch them somehow (Lance’s favorite method was a pat on the head or holding their hand) and you talk about something unrelated. Something funny and upbeat and harmless. Something that would in no way trigger memories of the nightmare. Anything.

“Don’t tell Hunk I told you this but, did you know the big guy has a crush?” Lance asked as they walked down the hallway, still arm-in-arm.

“Wh-What?” Shiro asked, seemingly just snapping out of whatever he’d been thinking about.

“You know, Hunk? He’s got a major fucking crush on someone on the ship. I’ll give you three guesses,” Lance said.

Shiro furrowed his eyebrows. “I don’t know if we should be talking about-”

“Sssshhhhh!” Lance hissed, bringing a finger to his lips. “You’re only job with thinking right now is to think about who Hunk has a crush on.”

Shiro blinked at him. Then his gaze wandered up to the ceiling as he thought. “Um, well, if I were to initially guess, I would have thought Shay.”

Lance scoffed. “That’s what everyone thinks. I mean, I definitely did for awhile which is why I never flirted with Shay. But imagine my surprise when I find out that she’s not the one he has a crush on?”

Shiro smiled a little at that and continued thinking, “Um, Allura?”

Lance smiled up at him and said, “Who doesn’t have a crush on Allura?”

“Oh, I know this one,” Shiro said, acting like a kid who knew the answer to 2 x 4. “Coran.”

“Aaahhhh, so the man admits he has a crush on the princess~?” Lance asked, eyebrows raising.

Lance expected the blush or a very firm retort. Instead, he got a smile very close to the one Shiro had given him during their game of Old Maid. Lance gripped Shiro’s arm tighter because he could have sworn he felt his knees buckle.

“I wouldn’t say she’s the one I have a crush on,” Shiro said.

“O-Oh. Okay, secret’s safe with me, bud. Anyway… uh, last guess?”

“Mmmm… Keith…?”

“Ding, ding, ding! We have a winner!” Lance shouted.

“Wow, really?” Shiro asked. “That wasn’t a very serious guess. But, wow.”

“Yep! Poor guy has had it bad for hapas since before I can remember.”

“For… what?”

“Oh, you know, hapas... “ Lance said. “Uh, it’s a Hawaiin word, I think? I don’t know. Hunk says it a lot so I just sort of picked it up, too.”

“What does it mean?” Shiro asked.

“It’s someone who is half something and half something else. Mostly has to do with race. And Keith is half-Galra and half-human so like…. He’s a hapa.”

Shiro smiled. “My mom was white and my dad was Japanese. Does that make me a hapa?”

“Uh, yes.”

Shiro smiled wider at that. Lance hoped that Shiro couldn’t see his blush, but that was a false hope since they were in a very well-lit hallway.

“A-Anyway,” Lance continued, remembering what it was that he was trying to accomplish here, ie) making Shiro feel better and not educating Shiro on the finer points of Hawaiian Pidgin. “We were just in Hunk’s room, talkin’ about crushes and ish and poor guy has it bad for our resident Galra mullet.”

Shiro laughed at that. “I don’t think he’d appreciate you calling him that.”

Lance smiled, feeling the tenseness leaving Shiro’s body. “Probably not. But what he doesn’t know can’t hurt him, right?”

“I suppose not,” Shiro agreed. “Can I ask why you and Hunk were talking about this in the first place?”

Lance shrugged. “It comes with the territory, you know? Best friends since middle school. The least you gotta do is talk about crushes. If you don’t have that, are you even best friends?”

Shiro smiled. “Keith and I hardly talked about that stuff. Matt had a little bit more but I think he was more in love with his work than another human being. He was mostly interested in my dating life and would bring it up constantly.”

Lance paused and didn’t say anything. He hadn’t heard Shiro talk about his lost friend before. Lance hadn’t even known they really knew each other until Pidge had said something about it. Pidge talked about their brother and father all the time so it wasn’t that weird to hear about him. But hearing it from Shiro was a bit weird.

When Shiro didn’t offer anything else for a few seconds, Lance said, “Oh? Sounds like you had a lot of stories to tell.”

At the charming tinge of pink on Shiro’s cheeks, Lance silently cursed himself. How the fuck was this guy even real?

“Not especially. There’d always be a classmate that would ask me out but nobody I ever really wanted to spend time with like that. Matt mostly wanted details about my crushes.” Shiro scratched the back of his neck and Lance was beginning to pick up on the gesture as something Shiro did when he was nervous or embarrassed. This man could literally break him in two with his thighs and he was such a fucking cutie! Being all bashful and shit! What did Lance do to deserve walking arm and arm with him?

“Oooh,” Lance said, trying to pull off innocent enthusiasm instead of a deep clawing need to know if Shiro was as straight as he thought he was. “I’d like to hear about that too.”

Shiro chuckled. “None of them are even good stories. Just casual glances or light friendly touches that I would pretend meant more. I was way too nervous to talk to any of my crushes without other people around.”

“Whaat? You? A walking talking studmuffin like yourself? You have got to be kidding me!” Lance said. The mental picture it created was nice though. Shiro being too shy to talk to a crush was something that Lance would have to revisit when he took to daydreaming before going to sleep. Most of his daydreams included taking down Zarkon by himself and getting a kiss on the cheek from either Allura or Shiro, or finally getting Keith to admit that Lance was better than him at something. But Shiro being shy about a secret crush that he had been harboring for Lance? That was a fantasy for the ages!

The pink tinge on Shiro’s cheek turned a bit darker and Shiro shrugged. “I… I wouldn’t say I’m a… ‘studmuffin’.”

“No, no, no, no, no,” Lance said waggling his index finger at Shiro. “I won’t hear of it. You are the Universe’s studmuffin and I will physically fight anyone who disagrees with me. Even if it’s you, big guy.”

Silence. Shiro looked like he was about to either bolt, or laugh, or disagree. Or all three at once.

Shiro was saved from answering however, when they heard a gasp at the end of the hallway.

Lance’s first thought was ghosts, but upon looking up and seeing the familiar moustachioed face of Coran, relaxed again.

“What’s up, Coran? Is everybody just deciding to not sleep tonight?” Lance asked.

Coran made his way silently to the two of them, a stunned face firmly set on his features. When he got there, Lance could have sworn that he saw tears in his eyes.

“I never thought I’d see the day,” Coran was mumbling to himself. He pulled both of them roughly into a hug.

“To think! Something beautiful and pure could be born from this whole Zarkon business… Well, it…” Coran honest-to-God sniffed. “It brings an old tear to this old Altean’s eyes.”

“Wh-What?” Shiro asked. “Coran, what are you talking about?”

He pulled back and pulled his arm from Lance’s grip. Lance tried not to whine at being interrupted. He was finally fucking getting somewhere. It was hard to stay mad at Coran though. The guy reminded him of his Uncle Julio. Lance remembered bringing friends home for dinner and Uncle Julio asking his friend how long they had been seeing his nephew and when the wedding was.

“Oh now, now, boys! No need to hide anything from Old Coran! Completely trustworthy. But, I can understand if you’d like to keep your relationship on the, how you say, ‘D-L’.”

He threw Lance a wink. Lance resisted the impulse to slap his forehead.

Instead, Lance looked over to see Shiro’s reaction. Closed off. Great.

Coran gave them both a firm pat on the shoulder and sauntered away singing some kind of old Altean love song.

After what felt like a few minutes of silence between them, Lance finally spoke up and said, “Uh, Shiro?”

He glanced at Lance, then quickly averted his eyes.

Lance didn’t know what to do. He could think of a few options but any of the bad end results were helpfully supplied by his brain.

“I’m sorry, Lance, I-... It’s been a long night. I think I need to go to bed, now.” He didn’t leave.

“Wanna tell me why you’re acting so weird about what Coran said?” Lance asked. Out of all of the options that Lance could come up with, talking about it seemed the best option. He couldn’t help it really. He was a talker. That was his thing. He talked. And besides that, he wanted to get to the bottom of whatever this was. Most straight guys he knew would have either laughed it off or jumped apart and proudly proclaimed “No homo!” Most straight guys he knew didn’t act like they were about to be rejected.

Shiro clenched his eyes shut. He breathed out through his nose. He opened his eyes and met Lance's eyes for a few seconds. His eyes shifted downwards, not directly into his eyes but still on his face.

“Just… thinking too much.”

“About what? Us being in a relationship?” Lance asked.

Shiro sighed. He rubbed his eyes with one of his hands. “Lance, let’s-... Find me tomorrow. We’ll talk about it tomorrow.”

Lance nodded. Normally, Lance would have pushed. He wouldn’t have wanted to have “A Talk”™ tomorrow and have all night to writhe with anxiety about what “The Talk”™ would be about. But Shiro looked exhausted. Poor guy probably hasn’t been getting the most sleep.

“Okay,” Lance said. “Tomorrow.”

Shiro nodded and then walked away. Lance’s shoulders slumped. He swore he had emotional whiplash. Just a few seconds ago he was flying high and now he had all night to bite his nails and distract himself from the sharp rolling of his gut. He made his way back to Hunk’s room. Hunk was probably still awake. If it was him and Shiro had stayed up late just to find him and wish him a good night, he probably wouldn’t be able to sleep. Now Lance wouldn’t be able to sleep for entirely different reasons.

He walked straight into Hunk’s room, not knocking but he did whine Hunk’s name really loud while walking down the hallway, so he figured that it was probably enough warning. Boy, was he wrong!

“Lance!” two slightly annoyed voices shouted at him.

And, okay, wow. He didn’t even say anything and they already wanted him out? Rude. But then Lance got a better look at their… situation.

Hunk was crowded up against the far wall by Keith who had his arms on Hunk’s shoulders. Hunks’ hands were on Keith’s hips. Both of their lips were red and the tiniest bit swollen.

Lance couldn’t help it. He whistled and clapped. “Get it, Hunk!”

“Out! Out! OUT! Get the fuck out!” Keith screamed, face turning a brilliant shade of red. Hunk was hiding his face in his hands.

Lance made a mental note to apologize later before bolting it down the hallway, cackling the whole way.


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lance hands out some advice on the importance of communication in relationships while avoiding talking about his feelings. Things work out... you know... Also in case you didn't know, Allura lives for gossip.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Guys! Guys! Guys! Thank you all so much for commenting and kudo-ing and subscribing and bookmarking! It does the old heart good! I am just so over the moon about how you guys seem to be enjoying this fic I've written! And you may notice that this is not the last chapter. I thought I could end it here but the chapter was getting waaayyy too long so I feel like I could separate it into 2 parts. So enjoy this first part and hopefully I'll have the last part up by the end of the week! Be excellent to each other in the meantime!

The next day found Lance with more prominent bags under his eyes and with a much slower step. He had tried to go to sleep, but ultimately failed. He tried to tell himself that Shiro wouldn’t berate him for acting gay and continue on to say that they needed to be professional about this with undertones of homophobia that was part and parcel to the military.

Lance didn’t know if he could stomach anything at breakfast so he skipped. He took to wandering the hallways instead. Hoping that he’d find Shiro, and hoping that he wouldn’t.

He did find Keith though.

“What’s up, mullet? What are your intentions toward my Hunk?” Lance asked.

Keith narrowed his eyes at him and huffed. The blush was cute, though.

“None of your business,” Keith retorted.

“Uh, it kind of is my business, because guess what? Hunk’s like my best friend and he’s got the biggest heart and I’d hate to see it break. Wouldn’t you?”

“I-... I’m not gonna break his heart,” Keith mumbled. “At least… not on purpose…”

“Nope, wrong answer!” Lance said, throwing his arm around Keith. “Walk with me.”

He pulled Keith along as they walked down the hallway. Keith yelled at him to get his disgusting arm off of him but Lance’s grip was stronger than it looked. Eventually, Keith’s half-hearted protests devolved into half-hearted mumblings.

“The correct answer is you promising me that you don’t want to see his heart break either and that you’ll do everything in your power to keep that from happening, capiche?”

“Why do I have to promise you that?”

“Because Hunk fully expects you to break his heart. And before you get down on yourself, it’s not because he thinks you’re a bad person or whatever. He just doesn’t see how any romantic relationship with him can end without him getting hurt. Don’t tell him I told you this but he’s had crushes before and he’s had kind of relationships before and they all ended badly. Mostly because of some stupid miscommunication, like, why don’t people ever fucking talk to each other?”

At Keith’s blank face, Lance stopped his soon to be tirade on communication and switched gears. “Just, talk to him. Regularly. About feelings and stuff. I know you’re like emotionally constipated or whatever but Hunk needs to hear how much you like him. Or else he won’t believe it.”

Keith nodded. “So… you don’t care if Hunk and I are…”

“Nope. As long as the big guy is happy.”

Keith nodded. “O-okay… Cool. Thanks.”

Lance snorted. “Don’t thank me yet! I still have yet to give you the obligatory ‘If you break his heart, we’re gonna have words’ line. And by words I mean we’re gonna go at it like fisticuffs.”

“I… don’t know what that word means…. But yeah. Okay, I guess. I mean, to be honest… if I ever did break his heart, I’d kind of want someone to punch me in the face? If that makes sense?”

Lance stared at Keith. Then grinned. “Oooooohhhh, Texas has it that bad for my buddy, huh?”

“Get off of me!” When Keith struggled this time, Lance let him go with a laugh.

“Go! I give you two my blessings! Make many many hapa babies together!” Lance announced.

Keith shook his head. “I don’t understand like half of what you say!”

Lance grinned as he turned away and continued to make his way down the corridor.

“Hey!” he heard Keith say.

When Lance turned around, Keith had an unreadable expression on his face. 

“What’s up?” Lance said.

“If you think that I’m emotionally constipated, then… just keep that in mind for Shiro, too.”

Lance was surprised at how not surprised he was that Keith had thought to bring up Shiro. He nodded slowly, not quite believing him. “Uh, thanks for the heads up, I guess.”

Keith nodded then turned to walk away.

The day continued on at a snail’s pace. There wasn’t any training scheduled and no diplomacy lessons from Allura. No missions, no distress calls. It was the closest thing that Lance had to a day off in a really long time.

It was driving him insane.

Normally, he could find things to make himself busy. He could go and chat Pidge’s ear off for hours or Hunk’s. But Pidge wouldn’t even look at him as they tried to put together some kind of rig to the holo-screens so that they could play their video game. And he wasn’t going anywhere near Hunk’s room.

He did not want to see that compromising position again, thank you very much.

So Lance was left to wander the castle, debating on whether to actually put effort into finding Shiro, or just let it happen.

The anxiety of not knowing about what was going to happen eventually compelled him to actually seek Shiro out. The sooner Shiro could tell him “Keep that gay shit in your pants,” the better in the long run.

Lance tried to think of places that Shiro would be when they weren’t being heroes. It was, he was loathed to admit, pretty hard to come up with anything. Lance then had the horrifying realization that he knew next to nothing about their leader’s personal life. What did he like? What did he not like? What did he used to do in his free time back at Earth? How does he spend his free time now? 

He wandered up to the control room to find Allura doing some kind of tech-y thing with the controls.

“Heya, Princess!” Lance greeted.

She startled and turned around. “Oh, Lance. Um, what a nice surprise…”

Despite popular opinion, Lance could read a room. The lady seemed peeved and obviously didn’t want to be bothered.

“Uh, just had a quick question,” Lance said.

“If it’s to have dinner with you with some vaguely concealed innuendo about romantic altercations, then I will have to decline,” she said, turning back to the consoles.

“Uh, no… Nothing like that… Just, wanted to know if you knew where Shiro was?” Lance asked.

She threw him a look indicating that she didn’t trust this turn of events 100%. She turned back to the consoles and said, “I sent him on a small retrieval mission. We received a distress signal from a nearby ship.”

“What? And he’s going alone? Why aren’t we all out there?” Lance asked.

She groaned and rolled her eyes. “It was hardly worth the time. The captain of the ship had accidentally left their pet kaloolon on a nearby moon and instead of going to get it themself, passed the task to us.”

“Then why did you send Shiro out there?”

“We’re not in a position to turn away potential allies, Lance,” she said, shaking her head. “Any rapport that we can build with any potentially powerful beings is important and greatly needed. It is your… ‘day off’, is it? If it had been anything more serious, I would have sent you all out. However, this is only a small retrieval mission. Kaloolons are notoriously simple-minded but gentle creatures. They’d follow anyone if they had a soothing voice and food they would willingly offer.”

Lance nodded turning his attention toward the holo-screens Allura had up. They depicted a heavily wooded area with streams of some kind of blue-ish green water running through it. 

“Looks like a nice place,” Lance offered.

“Yes,” Allura conceded. “It does have a charming quality about it, I suppose.”

They fell silent and Lance began to tap his foot, thinking. He crossed his arms and stared at the holo-screen as if it would give him the answer he needed.

“Is there anything else you wanted, Lance?” Allura finally asked.

‘Your hot bod’ was his knee-jerk reaction, however, eventually decided against saying it outloud. Instead he took a breath, “How long has Shiro been down there?”

Allura quickly glanced at the screen, “About two vargas…”

“And he still hasn’t found the thing?”

Allura shook her head. “It shouldn’t be this difficult to find one creature.”

“Let me go down there, too, then. The sooner we find it the sooner we can… go back to doing other stuff.”

Allura glanced over at him with her eyebrows raised. “I suppose two pairs of eyes would be more helpful than one in this instance. Thank you, Lance.”

Lance grinned. “Not a problem, Princess.”

She returned the smile. “Well, go retrieve your armor while I program the coordinates in Blue. I’ll alert Shiro that he now has help.”

Lance nodded. “Tell him we’re gonna chat, too.”

Allura gave him a curious look. Then she slowly began to smile as if realizing something.

“This wouldn’t have to do with what Coran had mentioned seeing last night, would it?”

Lance had never seen Allura’s eyes sparkle like that. With a mix of dangerous curiosity and tenacity.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Lance said, hoping his face was straighter than he was.

“You can’t hide these things from me, Lance. I know everything that goes on in the castle. Or was it not you and Shiro walking arm-in-arm late last night?”

Lance huffed and slid a hand through his hair. “I mean, yeah… but… it’s complicated, Princess.”

Allura rolled her eyes. “I don’t understand why it should be. It seems pretty obvious to me, at the very least.”

“You and apparently Coran but… I don’t think it’s as obvious to Shiro… which is why we should talk… I guess,” Lance mumbled.

Allura nodded and said, “Yes. I do find discourse to be a relative easy way to sort out what is going on inside someone’s head. Albeit, it’s often very hard to convince another of the merit of communicating, which is unfathomable to me.”

Lance snorted. “Tell me about it.”

“Afraid I don’t have the time right this second. However, after the mission, you are more than welcome to share a meal with me as we discuss the finer points of your upcoming conversation with Shiro.” As she said this, Allura raised her eyebrows and grinned at Lance.

Lance, despite his nerves still having some kind of Fight Club brawl in his stomach, grinned back at her and said, “Depending on how it goes, you either need to have a high-five or a tissue box ready for me.”

She nodded and returned her attention to the screen. He heard the beginnings of her opening communications with Shiro before he bolted out of there. Not willing to stick around to see Shiro’s reaction.

Lance suited up and made his way down to Blue in the hangar giving her a cheery “Mornin’, Beautiful!” He felt her hum happily in his mind, at first. Then he felt a small questioning wave as if she was trying to pull information from his head. It was warm though, like she was trying to comfort him.

“Don’t worry about me, babe. Just feelings and stuff,” he explained.

He felt the hum grow into a low protective rumble. He laughed. “Nothing anybody can do about it, sweetheart. Just need to talk it out with a certain someone.”

The rumble fell away into the comforting hum. Lance didn’t know if the extra boost of confidence was coming from himself or Blue was sending it to him somehow, but he felt a little bit better about facing Shiro after talking to Blue.

He climbed in the cockpit as he heard Allura over the radio.

“Shiro has been briefed on the updates to the mission. And… I’ll be honest, Lance. He seemed more stressed than relieved.”

Lance heaved a sigh. “Alright, Princess. Thanks for the heads up.”

“Good luck, Lance,” was all he got before Allura ended communications.

Thankfully, or not, the trip to the planet didn’t take that long. Less than 5 minutes and he was entering the planet’s atmosphere. He landed and climbed down from Blue.

“Shields up, beautiful. Hopefully it won’t take that long,” Lance said.

Dutifully, Blue raised her shields but not before giving Lance one more wave of confidence. Lance grinned before setting off.

The air or the atmosphere or something seemed to be really thick here. Or maybe the gravity was a lot denser? What are scientific words…. All Lance knew was that he was walking slower and his whole body felt heavier. No wonder it was taking Shiro so long to find this thing.

Lance also didn’t know exactly where he was going. He knew he needed to find the thing but he also needed to find Shiro. He eventually decided he just needed to bite the bullet and opened up communications with Shiro through his helmet.

“So what exactly are we looking for?”

“Lance!” came Shiro’s voice.

“What up?” When in doubt, casual it out.

A sound halfway between an exasperated sigh and a laugh came from the other end. “Oh nothing. Just wandering an alien planet looking for an alien so that we can make friends with other aliens. How’re you?”

Lance smiled. He liked sarcastic Shiro. “Oh, you know, just kind of trying to keep my mind off of the image of Keith forcing his tongue down my best friend’s throat.”

“What?”

“They were totally playing tonsil hockey last night. And then this morning Keith was all mopey and I haven’t seen Hunk yet today, but I will bet you at least 25 cents that he is totally over the fucking moon right now.”

“Wow,” Shiro drawled. “25 cents? You must be really sure.”

“Hey hey hey. Listen, okay? A, 25 cents is all I have so it’s a lot of money to me and 2 I would never bet money that I didn’t have.”

Shiro laughed and Lance wished he was standing near him to see his expression. To see his smile.

He was so fucked.

“So where are you so we can make a game plan of where the fuck we’re going to find this thing?” Lance said, trying to distract himself from his fucking feelings.

“I’ll send you my location and everywhere I’ve checked so far. Send me yours so we can meet in the middle.”

They sent each other their locations and Lance started to make his way through the heavily wooded areas and the heavy air to get to him. Lance continued the small talk because the Talk™ should be for when they are face to face.

“Do we even know what this thing looks like?” Lance asked.

“Allura said it’s smaller than a… what did she say? Walgroff but taller than a zidobo with the coloring of a graglesnip.”

“What the fuck are any of those things?”

“Beats me. Honestly, I’m just looking for any animal that looks out of place or looks lost.”

“You’d think the alien that lost their pet would have some kind of picture with it if it’s that important to them,” Lance mused, carefully looking around while he made his way toward Shiro.

“That’s… actually probably true. I’ll radio Allura to see if he had anything like that. Nice idea, Lance.”

Lance couldn’t fight the smile or the blush he was probably sporting right then. “Don’t sweet talk me yet, big guy. Don’t think I came down here with only altruistic intentions. We still need to have the Talk TM.”

“TM?”

“Trademark. Anyway, radio Allura. Let’s get this alien business settled.”

Lance didn’t receive a reply but he did hear Shiro address Allura asking for a picture. After double checking with the alien, Allura sent them the image. Lance didn’t know what he was expecting an alien pet to look like, probably something very close to the Yupper he had encountered, but he wasn’t expecting it to look very close to an Earth dog just with different coloring. It looked somewhere between a Great Dane and a Husky with fur a very shiny golden color that shimmered in the picture. It looked especially soft to touch.

“Shiro…”

“Yeah?”

“I want one….”

“Lance, we are not getting a dog.”

“No, you don’t understand… I need this dog.”

“What about Kaltenecker?”

“She’s not a dog!”

“Lance, we do not have the time or the energy to take care of a dog right now. They require a lot of work and a lot of training-”

“Yeah, but how sick would it be if we had a doggie side-kick! Like he can be an attack dog that fucking takes down robots! Shiro! We are missing out on a fantastic sci-fi experience here! And also don’t get me started on all of the cuddling possibilities. We can name him something cool like Kirk! Or or Rocket! Something sci-fi-y, you know?”

Lance was too busy staring at the picture of his new best friend that he didn’t notice Shiro climbing out of the brush in front of him. He also missed the way Shiro looked at him while chatting excitedly about the possibility of getting a space dog. Missed the way things seemed to slot in place inside Shiro’s head as he smiled fondly at Lance’s waving arms and toothy grin.

“We’ll talk about it later,” was all Shiro said before Lance ran straight into his chest.

Lance looked up at him startled.

Shiro smiled down at him and said, “Fancy running into you here.”

Lance grinned through his blush and leaned his elbow on Shiro’s shoulder. “You come here often, big guy?”

“Only to track down alien dogs sometimes. Otherwise not so much,” Shiro replied, not dropping the smile.

Somewhere in the back of his head, Lance knew he should keep the flirting to a minimum for now before they talked. But Shiro’s eyes were right there. Looking at him like he was the only person that Shiro ever wanted to look at. And that wasn’t even Lance’s over-inflated ego talking either. Objectively, that’s what Shiro looked like. And it was so easy. It was just so easy to be himself around Shiro that he could hardly hold it back.

“Well, maybe when you’re not too busy hunting down dogs and such, a nice guy could take you around and show you the sights, huh?”

Shiro’s smile widened just a bit, before dropping into an innocent curious look. “But where can I find such a nice guy like that?”

“Well, I know one guy. Constantly wears blue and is handsome as all get out. A good pilot but a better shot… and he… uh.” Lance stopped, trying to sort out quickly where he wanted this to go. Technically, they were still in the middle of a mission. Allura was probably listening. But he honestly couldn’t take not knowing anymore. He hated not knowing things. More than he hated knowing bad things. He took a steadying breath and continued.

“He really... likes you?” The look Shiro gave him was enough to make Lance look away. His eyes wide as if he honestly hadn’t expected Lance to say something like that. Was this all one-sided then? Was what he thought was flirting just… friendly team-building banter? Lance pushed on, refusing to meet Shiro’s gaze.

“And he… kind of wants to hold your hand and sometimes thinks… that… he misses home a lot but isn’t as sad about it when you’re around…”

Fucking feelings…

The thick air seemed to get thicker around them. It was hard for Lance to breathe as he waited patiently for Shiro’s answer.

“Lance…” came Shiro’s hushed reply.

Growing up, Lance never really liked his name. It was an odd and quirky one just like most of his siblings’ names. He was called The Tool a lot since one kid had made the astonishing leap that a lance was technically a type of tool but Lance thought that nickname was stretching it a bit. Nancy Lance-y was a favorite of his just because it rhymed. Another kid would pull his pants down in the middle of gym class and proudly proclaim “I pantsed Lance!” Lance would have given him a high-five if he had said that about anyone else.

But looking up at Shiro, hearing Shiro calling his name like that. Reverent and wonderful and so so soft. Lance knew he could grow to like it.

Before Lance got to hear the rest of Shiro’s reply, there was a rustling in the bushes. Lance reflexively grabbed his bayard and had it at the ready. Before he could really react though, a golden blur jumped out of the brush and sped past them, knocking Lance over in the process.

They only got a quick look at it before it sped away but it had to be it. The cannoli or whatever.

Shiro and Lance glanced at each other. Moment totally broken. They both sighed and Shiro offered Lance a hand to help him up. Lance took it and as he righted himself, he noticed Shiro’s fond look had hardened into Shiro’s business mode and Lance could die. He could die right there. Just… someone strike him down, please.

“Well, there’s our target,” Shiro said, conversationally.

Lance sighed. “Yeah. Duty calls, I guess.”

Shiro squeezed his hand he was still holding and gently pulled him closer. Lance felt Shiro’s breath on his ear as he leaned in to say softly, “After we finish up here, I’d like to hear more about this mysterious guy who thinks so highly of me.”

As Lance tried to wrap his head around what just happened and what Shiro just said to him, Shiro pulled away and honest-to-God winked. But like, not a creepy wink. A cute wink. One where both of the eyes close but only one stays closed making it a wink. The cherry on top though was Shiro was red all the way up to his ears.

They were still standing close together and Lance was staring hard at Shiro’s lips. He must have licked his lips or something because then Shiro was staring at his lips too.

“Right, well, let’s… Right?” Shiro said as he let go of his hand and backed away. He turned toward where the kapacola had taken off and began trotting after it not really waiting for an answer.

Lance let him get a few yard ahead of him before letting out the most frustrated sound he could muster. After he was done, he made his way after Shiro.


End file.
